Practical flood mitigation

As part of Resilience14’s Britain under Water conference programme, the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community will be highlighting how SuDS can be a practical and effective element when mitigating flood risk in urban developments.

After introducing the work of the Prince’s Foundation on sustainable urbanism around the world, the presentation will review the scalability of sustainability, from the city to the individual house. A case study, from Upton, Northampton, provides a real-life example of a sustainable drainage system (SuDS), an integral part of the development’s masterplan, which provides effective protection against future flood risk to the 1,200 new homes.

Ben Bolgar, Senior Director the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community:

“We urgently need to integrate creative water systems into both new and existing urban developments in order to create better resilience against heavy rainfall, whilst fostering better biodiversity and more beautiful place to live.

In addition to providing a natural pathway for water to be held back after heavy rainfall, the green spaces created as part of the system are enjoyed and valued by the community, creating wildlife habitats and improving quality of life.”

Visitors to Resilience14 will also be able to visit the Prince’s Natural House, a full scale home that uses natural materials to create a traditionally built, low energy family home that is as beautiful as it is green.

Being held at BRE, Watford on 26 November, Resilience14 is a one-day, content driven conference, showcasing the technologies and solutions that can protect and mitigate against flooding, storms and extreme temperatures. Supported by seminars and interactive sessions, the event will provide visitors with an understanding of resilience in the context of insurance and risk, design and build, health and wellbeing and repair, rebuild and rehabilitation of the built environment.

Visitors to Resilience14 can register for free admission to the conference and demonstration areas at www.resilience14.com. Companies interested in being involved with the event can also find out more at the website or by contacting Ann Williams on 01923 664319 or williamsal@bre.co.uk.